“The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away…” November 17, 2024
Dear Praying Friends,
“The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.†So spoke Job after the loss of his possessions and his children. Thankfully, we have experienced nothing even nearing the type of tragedy that Job endured. Yet this line from the first chapter of Job describes our experience over the past few months.
The Lord has given us some new people, he has taken some faithful ones away from us, and the Lord has remained ever worthy of praise!
Recently, we have seen two new families begin to attend our church, and from each of them, an individual has newly professed Christ as their Savior. In both situations, the Lord is overcoming old sins and moving his new children forward. We pray that others within these families will also trust in Jesus, and much fruit will result.
Praying with the Teel family as they leave our church for one closer to home (they’ve been driving over an hour!)
The Lord has also taken away. The two largest families that have been attending our church have moved on. One of the families had seven children, and the other had four. The larger family had been with us since our first year, and their absence left a large hole. For the past year, they had been commuting from their new home, which is slightly over an hour away. This limited their involvement, and we all agreed it would be best for them to attend a good church closer to home. Thankfully, there was one in their area that I could highly recommend, and they are now engaged there.
The other family had only been with us since May but had become a great blessing in a little space of time. We had looked forward to more time together, but the Lord had other plans. Their landlord suddenly died, and the father’s job unexpectedly pulled out of New York. Thankfully, the Lord quickly provided a home and a job in Pennsylvania, and they are now in a good church out there. To lose 15 people in the space of two weeks is unpleasant for any church, but the Lord continues to bring in new visitors regularly. We are sure that the Lord will continue to build Emmaus Road Baptist Church.
We had a ladies craft night and made fall wreaths together! (Natalie)
Kathy & Camila
We have a couple of events coming up for which we would appreciate your prayer. One is a photo shoot at our church. As a way of getting to know some of our neighbors better, we are offering a professional-style family holiday photo for free at our church on November 30th. On December 7th, we will have a ladies’ Christmas tea party, which has been very well attended in the past. We are going to do Christmas caroling later in the month as a way to meet new people. On December 22, the kids of our church will be presenting a drama that a man in our church has volunteered to put together. We pray that each of these events will glorify God and be used by Him to save souls and build his church.
Serving in “da Bronx,â€
The Hamilton Family Team
Ben, Andrea, Elaine, Nolan, Liberty, Nehemiah, Henry, Peter, and Finn
Recently two new attendees trusted Christ as Savior.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
Photo Outreach: Nov.30
Christmas Tea Party: Dec. 7
Christmas program: Dec. 22
Salvation of some who attend regularly but haven’t trusted Christ yet.
Photo Dump!
It’s the second birthday row in our family: Henry turned 8 in August, Peter turned 5 in September, Elaine turned 15 in November, and Andrea turned 42 in November!
Family Camping trip & hike in the Catskills
Elaine and Nolan marched in the Manhattan Veteran’s Day Parade with their Civil Air Patrol squadron!
